SALEM, Ore. – On the six-year anniversary of the first NAIA National Championship Final Site appearance in Corban University Women’s Volleyball history, the Warriors (29-4) clinched their seventh-straight trip to the NAIA Championships with a three-set sweep of (RV) Benedictine University at Mesa (24-7). Corban took commanding set scores of 25-16, 25-18, and 25-17 to earn yet another NAIA National Tournament Final Site appearance.
“It is exciting and an honor to earn another final 24 National appearance!” Warriors’ Head Coach Kim McLain said after her team made it 7-of-8 years earning a trip to the final site in McLain’s head coaching career at Corban.
“We knew we had to keep a level head and play with intention tonight, as every team battles to the wire at this point in the season. The team minimized errors tonight, which translated to a strong win in postseason play. We’re looking forward to working hard in the gym this week as we prepare for a perilous journey ahead,” McLain elaborated.
The Redhawks entered the NAIA Postseason as the regular season champs of the Cal Pac Conference, earning a respectable 18-2 record in conference play to beat out the Westcliff Warriors by a single game. They were led in the regular season by the Cal Pac 2022 Defender of the Year, libero Haley Rivera, who earned a conference-high 346 digs and was extremely efficient at the service line, with 94.5% of her serves connecting.
Tonight, the Redhawks entered an environment they had not seen all year long, as Corban had also seen their fair share of competition in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) this season. With the Warriors clinching an automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament thanks to a runner-up position in the CCC Tournament, Corban was looking to book their ticket to the final site with a much bigger trophy, or banner, in mind.
Both the Warriors and Redhawks were locked in to begin the Opening Round, as neither team could find much traction to build a solid lead before the other caught right back up. Despite leading by as many as four-points early, back-to-back points by Corban that made the score 15-12 in their favor still forced a Benedictine timeout.
That stoppage of play turned out to benefit the Warriors more than harm them, as they scored eight of the next 11 points to quickly jump out to a 23-15 advantage. A kill from sophomore outside hitter Rylee Troutman sealed the deal for Corban in the first set, taking a 25-16 victory on their home court.
The Redhawks managed to cause some issues for the Warriors to begin the second set, as they rallied off four-straight points to lead 7-3 before Coach McLain needed a moment to regroup. Corban managed to crawl within three points before senior opposite hitter Ally Schmidt stepped to the service line, earning two service aces and forcing the Redhawks into a pair of attacking errors to jump back in front, 11-9.
Benedictine Mesa once again called timeout trailing 15-12, but this time they were able to keep within striking distance at a 19-17 deficit to give hope to the small brigade of Redhawk fans that made the long trip north to Salem. However, the Warriors doubled down at the net, and two kills from senior outside hitter Avari Ridgway combined with multiple Benedictine attacking errors put Corban in the driving seat 2-0 in sets won.
The Redhawks needed to find an answer fast if they had any chance in a comeback this evening at the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center, and they started to find just that in the form of multiple avenues of scoring. A service ace, a pair of kills, and an assisted block quickly gave them an 8-3 lead in the third set, looking to force a fourth and possible fifth set.
A well-timed stoppage from McLain gave her team the momentum they needed to jump back out in front and utilized the motivation to force both of the Redhawks’ third set timeouts at a 19-14 Warriors’ advantage. In fitting fashion, this contest came to an end at the net, where Corban dominated all night long and put the exclamation point on amazing evening with a Troutman assisted block with sophomore middle blocker Allyson Reid.
The Warriors and Redhawks split the advantage at the service line this evening, which was necessary for Corban given the success that Benedictine had found all season long while serving. Every other statistical category the Warriors dominated in, including a 40-25 advantage in kills in just three sets played.
The hard-hitting Corban offense committed just nine attacking errors all night long, leading an impressive .344 attacking percentage over the entire game, while holding the Redhawks to a modest .062 hitting clip.
Ridgway and Troutman controlled the pace of play all evening, with the dynamic outside hitting duo pacing all players with 11 and 15 kills offensively, respectively, while each of them tallied double-digit dig counts to each earn a double-double in their final home game together as teammates.
Freshman setter Abby Guindy stepped up to lead all student-athletes with 19 assists tonight, while senior setter Jadyn Mullen added 15 dimes for the second spot on the leaderboard among all eligible players. Each of them added a service ace, while Guindy tallied four digs. Senior libero Kealani Ontai jumped on 13 digs to tie Ridgway for the team-high.
The Redhawks were led at the net by outside hitter Brianna Rivera, who tallied nine kills and added seven digs in the backcourt. Libero Haley Rivera notched a game-high 17 digs to add to her conference leading dig count, while setter Annabelle Somoza and outside hitter Kylie Bartel each registered 11 assists. Bartel also added five kills at the net to compliment Brianna Rivera.
The Warriors will take a break for the Thanksgiving holiday week, before the NAIA National Championships begins on November 30th in Sioux City, Iowa. The pool play bracket will be announced at 3pm PST on the NAIA website (www.naia.org) tomorrow, November 20th, where Corban will find out who their next opponent will be.
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